A lawyer presents an argument Wednesday before the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court in a case seeking to declare unconstitutional the daily recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance in public school classrooms.
(WBZ | News Distribution Network)

A Massachusetts family is asking the commonwealth's highest court to ban the daily recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance in public schools, claiming its phrase "under God" violates the rights of atheists.

Past legal fights against the pledge have claimed that "under God" violated the Constitutional separation of Church and State.

The case before the Supreme Judicial Court is taking a different approach, NBCnews.com reported. As he opened his argument Wednesday, David Niose, the lawyer for the plaintiffs, told the seven justices that "under God" violated the Equal Rights Amendment of the Massachusetts Constitution and that its use was discriminatory.

The pledge's repetition in schools is "indoctrinating" and alienates atheists, Niose said:

"It validates believers as good patriots and it invalidates atheists as non-believers at best and unpatriotic at worst."

Geoffrey Bok, a lawyer for the Acton-Boxborough Regional School District, the respondent, argued that reciting the pledge is not mandatory and that students may either not say "under God" or not recite the pledge at all.

"It's an affirmation. It's a statement of our political philosophy. A voluntary provision is about as unobtrusive as you can get."

"Under God" expresses a political philosophy and is not a religious declaration, Eric Rassbach, deputy general counsel for The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, told the court. He amplified that statement after the hearing for the Associated Press in a story carried by boston.com:

''It's always been used to limit first the power of the king and now the power of government . . . It's not a religious statement . . . no one is getting up there and saying a prayer when they say the Pledge of Allegiance.''

The case was brought in 2010 by an anonymous couple from Acton, Mass., who sued on behalf of their three children. A lower court rejected their argument last year, finding that including "under God" in the pledge did not make it into a prayer.

The couple appealed. They are asking the court to declare unconstitutional the daily recitation of the pledge in classrooms, Niose said.

The phrase "under God" was a late addition to the pledge. According to UShistory.org, Francis Bellamy, a socialist minister, wrote the pledge in 1892 in such a way that it could be used in any republic.

The words "the flag of the United States of America" were added in 1923. As Americans reacted to communist threats in the 1950s, President Dwight D. Eisenhower advocated that "under God" be added. The change came in 1954, over the objection of Bellamy's daughter.

The pledge has gone through a number of legal challenges over the years. CNN.com has illustrated them in a timeline.

Here's how WBZ in Boston reported the story, as presented by News Distribution Network:

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